EDMONTON – If chosen as premier, Alberta Tory leadership candidate Alison Redford is promising to reverse immediately the provincial education cuts that are being blamed for hundreds of teacher layoffs this fall.
“I will commit to restoring the education cuts made in the 2011-12 budget within 10 days of being sworn in as premier,” Redford said in a letter delivered Thursday to the Alberta Teachers’ Association.
“This funding should not have been removed from the budgets of Alberta School Boards. I only regret that the timing of the leadership contest means that unacceptable disruption has already occurred … If elected premier, I will not allow that to happen again.”
Redford is meeting with the association’s executive council in Edmonton on Thursday to detail her platform.
While the province’s overall education budget is rising this year, the increase is largely to cover a 4.5-per-cent pay hike teachers are receiving in the last year of a five-year contract with the government. Specific programs, such as the Alberta Initiative for School Improvement and English Language Learning, saw funding cuts which some say amount to about $100 million.
The teachers’ association says those cuts are responsible for hundreds of layoffs across the province. However, Premier Ed Stelmach made headlines in the spring when he suggested the ATA caused the layoffs by refusing to renegotiate their deal.
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He said sticking to the 4.5-per-cent increase was “unachievable” for a government struggling financially, so the province had to find ways to save money elsewhere. He said the ATA was given the opportunity last winter to accept more reasonable pay rates as doctors and nurses have done with new contracts, but the union decided to keep the raises.
“We asked for consideration,” Stelmach said at the time. “It didn’t happen, and as a result some teachers, especially temporary teachers, will not have a job.”
Redford took exception to those remarks, saying it was unfair to demand teachers do the same as doctors and nurses.
“I was surprised by Premier Stelmach’s comments, and I disagree with them,” Redford said. “It is possible for reasonable people to sit down and talk (about the deal), but if that conversation doesn’t lead to a result, then we have to act like mature grown-ups, respect the deal in place and not start assigning blame.”
Redford said Thursday that restoring the funding should allow school boards to hire back teachers and support staff, and reduce class sizes. She will also ask school boards to roll back fee increases that were passed onto parents this year.
Opposition parties have also been calling for the province to restore the funding.
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